Ginger
by NabikiB
Summary: An orphaned child with a bit of tech too old for her to be messing with grants the Doctor his fondest wish...then he grants her her's. Another AU from the lady who is the most allergic to Canon in the Doctorverse. Post Manhattan The Twelth's newest companion is more of a dependent, really. Seriously...you regulars know I like to rattle his cage...


Summary: An orphaned child with a bit of tech too old for _her _to be messing with grants the Doctor his fondest wish...then he _grants her her's_. Another AU from the lady who is the most _**allergic **_to Canon in the Doctorverse. Post Manhattan The Twelth's newest companion is more of a _dependent_, really. Seriously...you regulars _**know **_I like to rattle his cage...

**Ginger**

_**Zzzzzzzzzap!**_

_"What the..."_

"Your hair just turned green." A Meroasican female told her mother in the marketplace on Kanonkittietrai 4 as the Tenth wandered past the pair, not really paying much attention. He was trying to find something to take his mind off The Ponds.

_**Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzap!**_

"Skin in rainbow stripes? How'd you get _that_ ? And does it come off? You look _ridiculous_."

_**Zzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!**_

"Oh, you poor man!" A shopkeeper stopped his ramble to say with a sigh. "If that little brat isn't caught soon, the whole marketplace is going to be full of rainbow colored people...she just zapped your hair orange! Well, reddish-orange, but still _orange_."

"Whaaa?" He said intelligently.

"Yes. Been doing it for _days_, she has."

_**Zzzzzap!**_

The Doctor's lips twitched as the man's eyebrows turned glow-y-ish against the dark green skin.

"Got me, did she?"

"I'm afraid so, you now have glow in the dark eyebrows. Where is she? I'll see if I can catch her."

"People have tried, hard...ever since she got her hands on that tacalkja cosmetic changer and found out, to our displeasure, that it has a range of fifty meters...sixty if the sun is behind her, she's harder to see and can do it from further off. Who knew a child could be so mean?"

"Where's she from?"

"She ran away, as near as anyone has found out, from a human vessel. She had been ill used from the look of her so we fed her from our stalls, got her some clothes, that sort of thing. She doesn't mean harm, mind...she's just got a fair bit of mischief in her...we think she's seven or eight years old or so, and a pure human. Old enough to look after herself with some help."

"Ah. Okay, that's not good, _not good_. I'll see what I can do. Seven or eight standard galatic years for a human is about the same as two or three for _your _young ones."

"_That _young? Oh dear...she's a _baby_."

"Yes. Near to, yes."

"I'll pass the word through the stalls...so _young_, well, at least she's keeping out of _major _trouble...for now. Children of _that _developmental stage can get into all sorts of things. I suppose we're fortunate she's playing with a cosmetic ray."

"Yes...and _that's _what's scaring me." Nodding decisively. "I've got human in the ship's computer banks...let's see what a scan can turn up, shall we?"

*****WHO*****

He was frankly horrified, for several reasons, the first being that was _far _too young for a human to be on her own. A quick trot took him back to the TARDIS, but when he started scanning for a female human of so few years, she buzzed him. "There's one lost and alone on this planet, in the marketplace. With a cosmetic changer, zapping people. Note the Hair? Not that I mind, it's ginger after all, but um, she's seven, perhaps eight years old...so when you spot her, grab her...just materialize around the child, okay? She's far too young to be on her own. I'll worry about when she's from later, right now, I just want her physically safe...and that means _you_."

The TARDIS agreed...babies that young shouldn't be left on their own. It was a matter of about five seconds before the TARDIS caught the girl...between zaps, fortunately. The Doctor deftly relieved her of the tool and put it on the console. "Store that somewhere, will you old girl? I like the ginger and don't want to risk it changing."

She stared at him, obviously frightened, and he recalled what the shopkeeper had said about the vessel she'd run off from.

"First, I'm not mad. Okay? By that, I mean I'm not angry about the hair color, always wanted to be ginger, me. Second, a human your age has no business running about alone, you're far too young. Third, I'm already in love with someone, plus I'm not human, regardless of what I look like. Two hearts, for one thing, along with other internal organs you lot don't have, a bigger brain with a lot more density and a lot more sensory organs than just five major and two virtual. How you lot get on with just five physical senses I will never understand. On the other hand, I didn't know I had the virtual ones until I met Rose, so who knows, you've still got the common sense, whatever that is, which I know I don't have since every human I've ever met keeps telling me I don't." He paused, "By the way, this is my Timeship, I'm the Doctor...just call me Doctor, you can drop the 'the' part. What's your name?"

Chara's eyes had gone from fearful, to confused to full of mirth as the stranger babbled at her.

"Um, common sense isn't a real sense." She offered. "Ever had a feeling, without knowing why or having anything to back it up or any reason, that something is going on that just ain't good?"

_"Loads."_

"You have it...apparently what they meant is that you don't use it right." She just looked at him for a moment. "I think the problem that you're an adult, and adults, as every kid knows, are sorta stupid in some ways. Look, I'll try to teach you how to use it." She shrugged, "All it is, is subconcious knowledge trying to surface and make the concious mind pay attention. So, if your brain is really dense, it's something buried deep that needs to come out. But, I appreciate you being honest and telling me right from the start that you're an idiot." She patted him on the arm. "Don't worry, I'll look after you."

He gaped at her.

"You think I _said _I was an idiot."

"You said your brain is dense...like two short planks, right?"

"That's..._not _quite what I meant...my species fits ten times the brain tissue into the same space as a human does, our biology is vastly superior."

"Not if it's so dense you can't think straight 'cuz of being missing information." Came the prompt reply. "Making decisions on partial intel is the same as being _stupid_...which means you're an idiot. Don't worry though, I can work with that." She told him matter of factly. "Anyway, I'm Chara and I'm from Earth...some moron called the Doctor dropped my mum off without checking she was okay before he left. She had a picture of her and him though and I really hope you're not the same guy. Cuz if you are, I won't be calling you by your name."

"Where's your mum?"

"She died a couple of years ago, and I finally got away from her husband. He went insane...literally, when she died. He just had some kind of mental collapse"

"So...who was she?"

"Her name was Rose Tyler...and that guy wasn't my dad. She told me the fullblood is. Never knew what she meant."

"Twelve felt like he'd received a blow to the gut. Rose was gone and Handy, having gone insane, was wandering around in his natal universe in the infant TARDIS. her child home...for his, eventually, he supposed. "Did your mum ever bring you into her bond with the ship?"

"Yeah, when I was little. Really little, she said she did, anyway, we talk, the ship and I. Her name is Beauty. Cuz she is. I don't remember it, much, cuz I was preoccupied."

"With?"

"I was nursing." She told him, flushed.

"Yep, got my brain alright. No human would be able to recall that." He muttered. "No wonder the TARDIS took me to a peaceful market on a peaceful planet...we needed to fetch you home." Louder he told her, "I am the Eleventh regeneration of the Doctor. I am also your father."

She stared up at him in shock and then sank to her bum on the floor. "Didn't you want me?" She asked, tears in her voice that she refused to show on her face or in her eyes...so much like himself, that.

"I didn't know." He told her honestly, crouching next to her. He studied her for a moment, then held out his arms. Although she did hesitate, a nudge from both ships reassured the girl and she accepted by stepping into his embrace.

His own had already begun scanning for her daughter.

"Do you have any idea where he went?"

"Only that he booked a ride on a spaceliner, parked his ship and kicked me out at the market. Said the vessel was already doomed, space going titanic or something, and to have a wonderful life. He was an asshole."

"Language!" He barked, automatically, turning at the sound of the TARDIS fetching her own child into herself. He stood without letting go of his little girl...a seven or eight or nine year old part human child had even less business out on her own than a human did.

He sent the adult TARDIS in to the vortex to drift...and carried his little girl toward the kitchens.

"I bet you're hungry." He told her softly.

~TBC~


End file.
